Postcard from Guadalajara, Mexico: No need to gobble tacos on a stoop

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A vintage stamp from Mexico featuring three green bottles labeled 'Tequila' with agave plants, indicating a value of $10 and marked as 'Exportado'.

Above: Open kitchen at Birrieria Las 9 Esquinas

My days of wanting to stand in line to grab a meal at the street-corner taco stand, even when fresh tortillas and tantalizing smells rising from the grill are at their most seductive, are gone. I love street food, but I want to enjoy the experience…. At a table. Preferably with a shaken margarita and a beer or two alongside.

Guadalajara was heaven for me. Great ceviches and tacos in colorful, contemporary, relaxed settings. I have never eaten such a high concentration of tacos in a two-week period as I did there. I promise Lamar and I did not consume all of the food pictured below ourselves. There usually were four at our table, close enough friends and relatives for sharing freely, and we went to several of these spots multiple times.

As I start this alphabetical list to help you in your restaurant decisions, I realize that the first one, with white-shirted, black-aproned servers, is perhaps the most formal of all we frequented. In other words, you need not read any farther if you are seeking romantic white-tableclothed candlelit restaurants, or ones with any table coverings at all. Although two, Birrieria Las 9 Esquinas and Palreal, are recognized in Michelin’s new 2026 Guide.

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Spinning Hollins’ class news from 1898

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A vintage U.S. postage stamp featuring a profile of Susan B. Anthony, with the text 'Suffrage for Women' and a denomination of 3 cents.

Above: “Where Singleness is Bliss ‘T is Folly to be Wives,” Hollins Institute’s The Spinster Yearbook, 1898.

Lamar’s cousin Suzie hurled me down this rabbit hole by sharing some transcriptions of letters exchanged between Lamar’s paternal grandmother, Flora; and one of Flora’s sisters, Emily; about another sister, Jennie. The family letters indicate that the youngest sister, Flora, snagged Jennie’s former Boerne, Texas, beau, Radcliffe Spencer (1881-1965), while Jennie was out of state.

Joining the family by my marriage to Lamar in 1975, I only met one of the Johns sisters – Great Aunt Jennie. And, as Jennie and I both attended Hollins in Roanoke, Virginia, a relative shepherded me over to Great Aunt Jennie. Jennie had fond but faint memories of her pre-1900 time there, as she was at least 95 at the time of our introduction. In the midst of an overwhelming family gathering, my presence proved only confusing for her.

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Postcard from Brussels, Belgium: Mystical gardens of Malines’ Beguines

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Enclosed garden showing Daniel in the lion's den
A Belgian postage stamp featuring a depiction of the city of Mechelen, showcasing its architecture and bells.

Above: “Daniel in the Lions’ Den,” with Saint Peter on the left and Saint John on the right, 1500-1550, Hof van Busleyden Museum, Mechelen (Malines), Belgium.

There are among us women whom we have no idea what to call, ordinary women or nuns, because they live neither in the world nor out of it.”

Guibert of Tournai (1200-1284), 1274, via “Sisters Between: Gender and the Medieval Beguines,” Abby Stoner, Kenyon College

The Mother Abbess in The Sound of Music might have wondered what she was going to do about Maria, but that’s nothing compared to the befuddlement of the Roman Catholic hierarchy in the 13th century figuring out how to control the Beguine Sisters.

Limited options were permitted women in the medieval ages: subjugate themselves in marriage or enter a cloistered convent for life. Those limited choices are what attracted women to voluntarily cluster together in houses, forming their own communities on the outskirts of towns – beguinages. They donned habits similar to those of nuns and committed themselves to chastity, albeit not necessarily a lifetime commitment.

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